


Timewarp

by SlightlyBelowAverage



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Cult Ending, I'm sorry about this, M/M, dadsona is called charles i cba with y/n and shizz, timeloop AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:33:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11590251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlightlyBelowAverage/pseuds/SlightlyBelowAverage
Summary: Charles Blackthorn settled into a contented sleep. Amanda had graduated, he himself had become friends with everyone in the cul-de-sac, and all was well.Zzzzzzz"Dad!"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"DAD! Wake up!"It was then that Charles woke up in the middle of his living room of his old house, spooning a moving box. What?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so in the first timeline Charles didn't romance anyone by Amanda's graduation (which I know can't happen in-game shhh) but had a big ole crush on Robert, who was reluctant to hang out. I feel like writing a prequel of fun platonic dad hangouts between the others bc Charles became really good friends with all of them (except Joseph) but I'm not good at writing so *shrug emoji*
> 
> sorry in advance for using italics so much

Charles Blackthorn settled into a contented sleep. Amanda had graduated, he himself had become friends with everyone in the cul-de-sac, and all was well. 

Zzzzzzz

"Dad!"

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"DAD! Wake up!"

It was then that Charles woke up in the middle of his living room of his old house, spooning a moving box. _What?_

"Did you fall asleep packing?" 

"Hn?" _Why were they back at the the old house?_

Charles sat up, rubbing his eyes and groaning loudly.

"What's in this box?" Amanda pointed to an unsealed box filled with photo albums.

_This seems **very** familiar,_ Charles thought to himself.

"Whoa, I haven't seen these in years..." Amanda remarked as she flicked through the childhood photos.

In a haze, he carried on the conversation with his daughter, commenting how cute the picture of her and Emma R. was.

"Wow, dad, you actually managed to remember which Emma it was!"

_Only because he had already had this conversation a few days ago..._

They looked through the rest of the photos, and just like last time they found the image of Amanda's other dad. And just like last time Charles felt a lump in his throat. 

He knew he should divert Amanda's attention away from the sadness of losing her father, but he couldn't find the energy within himself to do it again. Instead they finished packing and Amanda and Charles piled into the car.

"You okay, dad?" Amanda said, brow furrowed in concern.

"Ha, of course, Manda Panda," Charles chuckled to himself nervously.

The moving van began to pull away and Charles followed it, watching the old house disappear in the rearview mirror for the second time.

Amanda stayed mostly silent, likely unsure what was up with her dad. In a valiant effort to regain _any_ semblance of control, Charles cleared his throat, putting on his best cheesy announcer voice.

"So, our new pad not only has bedrooms for your sleeping pleasure, but couches and floors pace where you can, yes, catch a wink." Charles tried, voice strained, _this line had worked a lot better in the previous timeline._

If anything, this only made his daughter look more concerned. He decided to shut up and let the rest of the car journey pass in uncomfortable silence. Eventually they pulled up to the new house, and Amanda pulled a chuckle from him by drop kicking the 'FOR SALE' sign, even if the action was hauntingly familiar. 

"Nice form, sweet pea," Charles said, with a genuine smile. 

"I GOT A PROBLEM WITH AUTHORITY," she yelled, and pride welled within Charlie at Amanda's antics.

"Let's unpack, kiddo, we got work to do," Charles said, though in part he steered the conversation toward that direction to avoid the possibility of seeing Mat and Robert at the coffee shop or Brian in the park.

In the two hours that passed while unpacking, Charles began to calm down. 

_Okay, so meeting all those other dads must have just been a dream,_ Charles decided, _an extremely detailed dream fueled by energy drinks and last-minute packing._

Just then the doorbell rang. 

_Huh, first visitor already?_

Charles walked over to the front door and opened it, before quickly slamming it shut again. 

The man behind the door made a confused noise, and Charles opened the door again a crack to peer through.

Yep. A handsome, clean-cut man stood at the door, brandishing a plate of cookies. It was Joseph.

"Sorry if I startled you, neighbour! I'm your new next-door neighbour Joseph, I saw the moving van and thought I'd bring over some cookies. My daughter Christie wanted me to let you know she baked them herself."

Joseph leaned in and whispered, "But between you and me, she just sprinkled in the chocolate chips."

Charles still managed to muster a half-hearted laugh despite the painful knot of anxiety in his stomach. Kids, right?

"I'm Charles, er, Charles Blackthorn. That's my name. Yep." _Why was he like this?_

At that moment, Amanda was his saving grace. She appeared beside him, shoving him out of the way and opening the door all the way to properly greet the cookies (and Joseph).

"Wow cookies, huh?" She says, "So nice to meet you," and with that she took the cookies with thanks and disappeared within the house.

Charles stared after her, mentally pulling himself together, "Amanda, come b- and she's gone," he said, "that's my daughter. Her name is Amanda. She's a charmer."

"Daughters are tough," Joseph said, "sons are also tough. Children in general are just... Tough."

Charles thought of Chris, Christie, Christian and Crish for a moment. _Yeah, Joseph really knew what he was talking about, the twins still creeped the bejesus out of him._

Managing not to put his foot in his mouth this time around Charles replied, "I hear that, how many you got?"

_Don't say four, don't say four, don't say four._

"I have four kids," Joseph said.

_God-fucking-dammit!_

"Ah, what a reasonable number of children," Charles squeaked out.

Joseph just chuckled in response, likely mistaking his horror at realising the reality of the not-dream for horror at imagining rearing such a large brood of kids.

"Is the missus around?" Joseph asked, and Charles cringed

"Mister, actually... And err... No. Not anymore... He died." _That wasn't any easier to say the second time around._

"Oh. Uh..." Joseph faltered, "I'm sorry for your loss"

"No no, it's alright." Somehow it was more uncomfortable this time, even knowing what Joseph would do next.

Like before, Joesph asked Charles to close the door and re-introduced himself. 

"I'm throwing a barbecue for the cul-de-sac and I'd love for you to come by and meet the rest of the neighbours in our community. Whadya say, pal?" Joseph said, still smiling with his huge grin.

Charles hesitated, could he handle seeing the other dads again? None of them would remember him, not even Robert.

He flushed at the thought of the knife-wielding cryptid hunter. Robert had been reluctant to pursue a relationship with him in the last timeline, to think that the little progress Charles had made was wiped away...

His chest felt tight.

"Charles?" Joseph said, snapping Charles out of his mini-breakdown.

"That sounds great," Charles forced out. _God, what had he done?_

They shook hands briefly before Joseph set out to leave, he paused after a few steps and turned back.

"Hey, in all seriousness, raising a kid on your own can't be easy. If you ever need to... talk about... stuff... I'm the youth minister at a church down the street." Joseph said.

Charles had never taken up his offer before, he'd always picked up a sort of... creepy vibe from the other man. Besides, he wasn't religious... Or a "Youth". 

The latter part he told Joseph. Again. 

"You look pretty young to me, but suit yourself!" Joseph joked. And with that, Joseph was gone.

_Ah, still just as creepy as the first time._

Maybe he would take Joseph up on his offer, what was the worst that could happen?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I said that things would go off-script I basically meant that Charles would become a recluse and also embarrass himself lmao
> 
> Thank you guys so much for the positive response! For someone who hasn't published fanfic in years and is only just getting back into creative writing it is really nice to see that y'all like it! I'll answer everyone's comments soon, I was just writing non-stop to get this chapter out today!
> 
> also one last thing - I'm from the UK and it will physically pain me to spell it 'neighbor' so pls,, just ignore

Despite his reservations, Charles made it to the barbecue. 

The previous few days he had managed to evade the other dads by resolutely staying inside and ignoring Amanda’s worried suggestions to visit any of their neighbour’s usual haunts. 

Well, _almost_ all the other dads; the exception being, of course, Hugo. That parent-teacher meeting had been awkward, to say the least, although this time he was able to locate the classroom with relative ease at least.

“Hey Hu-Mr Vega. You wanted to see me about Amanda?” Charles had stuttered out

Hugo had expressed his concern for Amanda’s grades and Charles had assured him that he’d talk it over with her. He knew why she was so upset this time around after all.

It was weird spending time with a Hugo who didn’t even recognise him, a Hugo who he had never shared a cheese board with. Charles’ stomach began to rumble as he thought of all the different chunks of delicious cheese. Mmmmmmmm.

“Mr Blackthorn?” Hugo’s voice snapped him back reality, or whatever fresh hell he was living.

Charles scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, “Sorry, I was thinking about cheese.”

Hugo smiled faintly, “that’s quite alright, have a nice day,” he said

Pleased to have a moderately normal conversation with his daughter’s teacher, Charles strode out of the classroom. Or, he tried to. As it turned out, walking straight into a classroom door really hurt.

Charles salvaged what dignity he had left and bolted to the car to wait for Amanda. She appeared after only ten minutes of impatient thumb twiddling and leg bouncing. 

Look at that leg go. So much bounce. 

“Dad, why do you have a nosebleed?” 

“I saw a hot boy and reacted just like those Japanese animations that are so popular with the kids today,” Charles said, dabbing the area with some dusty and probably very unhygienic tissues he found in the glove compartment.

Amanda raised a single eyebrow. 

“Fine. I had an argument with a door and lost,” he finally relented, “And I did it in front of Mr. Vega so I can never return to this place.”

There was a beat of silence, and then both Charles and Amanda burst into uncontrollable giggles. Only after laughing hard enough to make their ribs hurt and let tears run down their cheeks did they stop, and Charles started to drive them home. 

He didn’t bring up the conversation with Hugo, he figured he’d give her time to come to him with her problem without freaking out on her. That was hopefully the right decision? He didn’t know anymore.

The night went as so: They cooked dinner, he burnt the bacon, and he went to his room when the Emmas came over, even though he wanted nothing more than to defend his daughter’s honour and kick them out. 

He awoke the morning of Joseph’s cookout wanting to do literally anything other than socialise with all of his friends who didn’t remember him. Also Joseph. Still creepy.

Amanda dragged him over there, of course, and he clenched his teeth as Joseph jogged over to them, arms open wide.

“Welcome! I’m so glad you two are here!” Joseph said, then proceeded to introduce his entire family to Charles and Amanda. Apart from Crish. Charles still wasn’t sure that Crish actually existed…

Since Charles had been actively avoiding meeting his neighbours, Joseph took it upon himself to introduce him to everyone.

It was actually quite easy to get the dads to instantly like him, since he already knew them so well. Brian was still infuriatingly competitive though…

Interestingly enough, Joseph didn’t call Robert over, although Charles could see him skulking around near Brian, eyeing Charles up and down. _Be still, my beating heart._

As Joseph finished introducing him to Damien, Charles peered across the yard. He hadn’t seen Craig yet. He wondered where he was.

“Charles! Bro!”

Ah, mystery solved. There he was, River strapped to his chest as per usual.

“Yo, Craig! Bro! You live around here too?” Charles could only hope that his surprised face was good enough, he had practised it for five hours in the bathroom mirror last night in preparation for this.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s been too long bro,” Craig replied, “I was working out in California and just relocated business back to Maple Bay.”

Charles waved Amanda over, “Amanda, this is my old college roommate Craig,” he said.

“Amanda! Dude! You probably don’t remember me but you’re so big now!” Craig said.

“Hello! And hello, cute baby!” Amanda cooed over the baby the same way the had the first time they had met. Even with all of Charles’ meddling the conversation was nearly identical to the first timeline. Creepy.

“Aw, thank you. The last time I saw you I think you were about her size.”

“This is River. Say hi, River.”

Just like before, Craig picked up her tiny fist and waved it around. River gurgled happily.

Both Craig and Amanda looked over at Charles as he shuddered from the deja-vu.

“You okay, dad?” Amanda asked.

“Just got a chill, hah!” He said, rubbing his arms.

“Dad, it’s almost ninety degrees,” Amanda said, sharing a confused look with Craig.

Charles coughed loudly, “ANYWAY! Nice to see you again Craig. We should really catch up sometime,” he said, slowly edging away, “I’m gonna go talk to someone else. Who isn’t you. Not that talking to you is bad, this has been a really pleasant conversation. In my top five best conversations of this month, in fact, right up there on the scoreboard.”

Craig stared at him, befuddled,. 

“I should stop talking,” Charles continued, “Hey, I think I hear someone calling my name! I guess I better bounce,”

“Dad, nobody is calling your na-” Amanda started, but he was already sprinting away from his problems.

For a moment he felt utterly free, a soft breeze ran through his locks and the sun shone down onto his face as he ran across the grass... straight into a solid figure. Whoops.

Both Charles and whichever solid mass of muscle he crashed into fell down onto the hard ground of Joseph's backyard together. Whatever the other dad was drinking spilt all over Charles’ back and his still tender nose started bleeding again. He could hear Mary laughing from across the yard.

“Fuck my entire life,” Charles said, “Whoever I’m lying on, I am so so sorry for this. I think I’m going to die now.”

There was a recognisable somewhat-pissed, somewhat-amused sounding grunt from beneath him. Charles could smell whiskey and cigarettes.

_Oh, no._

He rushed to his feet, face flushed and blood smeared across his face. The entire neighbourhood was staring at him in silence.

Amanda decided that was a perfect time for her input, “HEY DAD, YOUR NOSE IS BLEEDING AGAIN! IS THAT THE HOT GUY YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT?” she shouted across the yard.

Never had he wanted to be swallowed by the ground more than in that moment.

Robert had sat up and his lips twitched at Amanda’s exclamation, a grin was threatening to stretch across his face. _Asshole._

“Hey, bud. You wanna clean up your nose in my house? You can borrow a shirt too!” Joseph said, popping up from nowhere like some sort of demon from Long Haul Ice Road Paranormal Ghost Truckers.

There was nothing Charles would want to do less than enter Joseph’s house, but for politeness’ sake he followed the man into a very nautical-themed bathroom. He would _not_ be borrowing one of Joseph’s shirts though, there was no way in hell anyone could ever convince him to do that.

Joseph left him to it, and when Charles re-emerged into the yard conversation had gone back to normal, his embarrassment seemingly forgotten. Burgers were already sizzling on the grill, so it looked like he had missed the pun-off. Dammit.

He sidled back up to Robert, who had procured another glass of whisky, and looked nonplussed by the events that had just transpired.

Charles fidgeted in place for a moment, “Uh, hey, I’m really sorry about that. I’m Charles, your new neighbour”

Robert took a long swig of his drink, “Charmed.”

_Quickly! He had to think of something moderately funny to say!_

“You know how it is, when the PoPo are after ya, ya just gotta dash,” Well, he failed at being funny, but it’s the thought that counts.

Even so, Robert gave him one of those rare smiles and Charles started blushing again. _Damn his easily flustered nature._

“So, that was the most entertaining thing to happen at one of these cookouts since Ernest burnt down half of the yard,” Mary had sauntered over with her overly-full glass of wine.

“I live to entertain,” Charles said, “in the circus I would showcase my crippling social awkwardness every day,” he paused, “While riding the unicycle. On fire. I’m told I was very popular.”

That absolute zinger was enough for a brief laugh from Robert and Mary. _Excellent._

“Robert, you should invite this guy to come out drinking with us,” Mary said.

_Oh heck, Mary was actually being nice to him._

“Maybe on one of our escapades we could find him a personality, or a sense of humour,” she continued.

_Ouch._

“I’m just joking, don’t look like a kicked puppy. You’re probably the fourth funniest person here,” Mary said.

“Fourth?” Charles inquired

“Well, I’m first. Then Robert. And third is that baby over there that Kale-Dad is toting around,” Mary explained.

_That was fair, River was a comedic genius._

Eventually Charles escaped the barbecue like a pro, with Amanda in tow. (Hey! That rhymed!)

“Pretty fun party, don’tcha think?” Amanda said, with a grin.

“I immensely enjoyed the part where I knocked over a hot guy and bled all over him,” Charles replied

“So you do like him!” Amanda immediately started to squee

“I think I need to go into the witness protection program,” 

“Dad, you said that after you accidentally bought a shirt that was a size too small and had to return it,” Amanda reminded him.

Goddammit, he had almost forgotten about that…

“I have a good feeling about this place, Dad”

“Yeah, that’s what you said last time,” Charles said with a sigh.

“Huh? What was that, dad?” Amanda asked, turning towards him with a quizzical look on her face.

“Nothin’, Manda,” Charles said, “don’t worry about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna pester me for new chapters you can follow my tumblr: https://lonelytransboy.tumblr.com/  
> & if you wanna see my pretentious non-fanfic creative writing: https://demonosopher.wordpress.com/
> 
> This chapter was written with a lot of energy drinks & 'Prince Tulip' by $uicideboy$ played on repeat ;)
> 
> also i had to look up what temperature is hot in fahrenheit so idk if it's accurate. i am a filthy englishman and i have no shame.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if you want me to continue with this. Next chapter will be a lot more canon-divergent as Charles figures out what is going on!


End file.
